TERMINOLOGY

Technically speaking, this utility deals with more than just "phases", it will in fact dump all plugins used, and it will in the process of doing so, dump things that are part of the clearly defined "phases" that occur within Dist::Zilla.

However, if you want to be pedantic, and understand how Dist::Zilla works, then you must understand, many of the things this module calls "phases" are not so much phases.

At its core, Dist::Zilla has an array, on which all Plugins are stored.

A Plugin, in itself, will not do very much ( at least, not unless they do instantiation-time changes like [Bootstrap::lib]

There are 3 Primary kinds of plugin

Auxiliary Plugins

Plugins which exist to augment other plugins ( For instance, -FileFinder's ).

Dist::Zilla itself essentially ignores these, and their consumption is entirely regulated by other plugins.

Phase Plugins

Plugins which hook into a specific and determinate phase of the Dist::Zilla build/test/release cycle.

These all provide primary methods, which Dist::Zilla directly calls somewhere in its core code base.